Hong Kong police arrest 3 more staff from children’s home over abuse allegations
- New arrests bring total number of suspects to 23; officers also identify another four toddlers who were allegedly abused
- About 50 to 60 children have continued to live at the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children’s Mong Kok facility since scandal broke
Hong Kong police have arrested three more staff members of a scandal-hit child protection group over accusations of abuse, taking the total number of suspects in the case to 23.
Officers also identified another four toddlers who were allegedly abused at the Mong Kok residential home run by the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children (HKSPC). All of the 39 toddlers who were allegedly harmed were sent to hospital for check-ups.
Police arrested the three new suspects, aged between 24 and 45, on Friday morning at their homes in Tseung Kwan O, Kwai Chung and Sham Shui Po, according to the force. They have been detained for questioning.
Since the scandal broke in late December, about 50 to 60 children have continued to live at the facility.
Previously, 20 arrests were made in connection to the case.
Last month, Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee said he had expanded the investigation team dedicated to the case from 21 to 26 members, adding he hoped they could complete a sweep of 60,000 hours of CCTV footage within a month and identify more suspects.
Siu continued that the victims were three years old at most, and that it broke his heart to see the footage.
On Monday, the Social Welfare Department pledged to improve its inspection of children’s homes and defended its decision to not take over the child care facility, even after an independent review found rough handling of toddlers had become “habitual” there.
Authorities said they had sent an interdisciplinary team to conduct investigations and inspect the centre daily since the allegations of abuse had surfaced.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong had previously told lawmakers that the department’s inspection team was not required to regularly review surveillance video footage from care homes before the scandal.
“We will do it in the future … There are at least 40 cameras [inside the home], which record their moves 24 hours a day; it’s important for us to come up with a sampling method,” he said.
Law added that Susan Choy So Suk-yin, ex-director of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children who resigned from her position following the incident, had also left her role as a non-official member in the Commission on Children.
